Editing MUD

In computer gaming, a '''MUD''' ('''Multi-User Dungeon'''), pronounced /mʌd/, is a [[multi-user]] [[virtual world]] described entirely in text. It combines elements of [[role-playing games]], [[hack and slash]], [[interactive fiction]], and [[online chat]]. Players can read descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, [[non-player characters]], and actions performed in the virtual world. Players interact with each other and the world by typing commands that resemble a [[natural language]]. It has been argued that modern game-like MMORPGs, such as ''World of Warcraft'', and social [[virtual world]]s such as ''Second Life'' can have their origins traced back to the original MUDs.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/07/17/id_close_world_of_warcraft_mud_creator_richard_bartle_on_the_state_of_virtual_worlds.html
 |title=MUD, PLATO and the dawn of MMORPGs
 |author=Keith Stuart
 |year=2007
 |quote=<small>The thing is, though, that even if the likes of Oubliette did count as a virtual world, they had pretty well zero effect on the development of today's virtual worlds. Follow the audit trail back from World of Warcraft, and you wind up at MUD.</small>
}}</ref> The MMORPG [[RuneScape]] originally started out as a text-based MUD before graphics were added.<ref name="runescapeqa">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13769|title=Q&A: Behind RuneScape's 1 Million Subscriber Success|accessdate=2008-12-05|publisher=Gamesutra|year=2007|author=Jason Dobson|quote=<small>When I went to university, I discovered text-based MUDs, or multi-user dungeons. I loved the fact that these sorts of games had all these players playing at once - even when you were not playing, the world carried on without you. Because of this, I began creating my own text-based MUD, but I quickly realized that with so many of them out there, there was no way that mine would ever get noticed. So I began to search for a way to make mine stand out, and the obvious way, of course, was to add graphics. With my game, I was trying to emulate text MUDs at the time, purely as a hobby. </small>}}</ref><ref name="warcryrunescape">{{Cite web|url=http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/interviews/5080-WarCry-and-Jagex-Talk-RuneScape|title=WarCry and Jagex Talk RuneScape|accessdate=2009-01-06|publisher=WarCry Network|year=2008|author=John Funk||quote=<small>Olifiers began with a brief history of Jagex and RuneScape: how Lead Developer Andrew Gower and his brother Paul founded the company in Cambridge in 2001, bringing their love for classic MUDs into the visual realm. The original RuneScape  (now referred to as RuneScape Classic) was simply and exactly that: a 2D graphical interface placed on top of a MUD</small>}}</ref>

Traditional MUDs implement a [[fantasy]] world populated by [[List of species in fantasy fiction|fictional races and monsters]], with players being able to choose from a number of [[character class|classes]] in order to gain specific skills or powers. The object of this sort of game is to slay [[monster]]s, explore a fantasy world, complete quests, go on adventures, create a story by [[roleplaying]], and advance the created character. Many MUDs were fashioned around the dice rolling rules of the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' series of games.

Such fantasy settings for MUDs are common, while many others are set in a [[science fiction]]–based universe or themed on popular books, movies, animations, history, and so on. Not all MUDs are games; some, more typically those referred to as [[MOO]]s, are used in [[distance education]] or for virtual conferences. MUDs have attracted the interest of academic scholars from many fields, including communications, sociology, law, and [[synthetic economies]].

Most MUDs are run as hobbies and are free to players; some may accept donations or allow players to "purchase" in-game items, while others charge a monthly subscription fee.

MUDs can be accessed via standard [[telnet]] clients, or specialized [[MUD client]]s which are designed to improve the user experience. Numerous games are listed at various web portals (see [[#External links|external links]]).

== History ==
''[[Adventure (computer game)|Adventure]]'', created in 1975 by [[Will Crowther]] on a DEC [[PDP-10]] computer, was the first widely used [[adventure game]]. The game was significantly expanded in 1976 by [[Don Woods]]. ''Adventure'' contained many D&D features and references, including a computer controlled [[dungeon master]].<ref>{{cite book
 | author    = [[Nick Montfort]]
 | title     = Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction
 | publisher = [[MIT Press]]
 | year      = 2003
 | isbn      = 354063293X
 | url       = http://books.google.com/books?id=XiJFORKEm0oC
 | quote     = 
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | url       = http://www.livinginternet.com/d/di_major.htm
 | author    = [[Bill Stewart]]
 | title     = Summary MUD History
 | quote     = Containing many of the features of a D&D game, it added an interesting twist -- the dungeon master, the person who set-up and ran a D&D world, was played by the Adventure computer program itself.
}}</ref>

Inspired by ''Adventure'', a group of students at MIT, wrote a game called ''Zork'' in the summer of 1977 for the PDP-10 computer which became quite popular on the ARPANET. ''Zork'' was [[ported]] under the name ''Dungeon'' to FORTRAN by a programmer working at DEC in 1978.<ref>{{cite web
 | url       = http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/Articles/NZT/zorkhist.html
 | author    = [[Tim Anderson]]
 | coauthor  = [[Stu Galley]]
 | title     = The History of Zork
 | quote     = Zork was too much of a nonsense word, not descriptive of the game, etc., etc., etc. Silly as it sounds, we eventually started calling it Dungeon. (Dave admits to suggesting the new name, but that's only a minor sin.) When Bob the lunatic released his FORTRAN version to the DEC users' group, that was the name he used.
}}</ref>

In 1978 [[Roy Trubshaw]], a student at [[Essex University]] in the UK, started working on a multi-user adventure game in the MACRO-10 assembly language for a DEC PDP-10. He named the game ''MUD'' (''Multi-User Dungeon''), in tribute to the ''Dungeon'' variant of ''Zork'', which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.<ref name="wired-article">{{cite journal
 |author=[[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]], [[Howard Rheingold]]
 |year=1993
 |title=The Dragon Ate My Homework
 |journal=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]
 |volume=1
 |issue=3
 |url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/muds.html
 |quote=<small>In 1980, Roy Traubshaw, a British fan of the fantasy role-playing board game Dungeons and Dragons, wrote an electronic version of that game during his final undergraduate year at Essex College. The following year, his classmate [[Richard Bartle]] took over the game, expanding the number of potential players and their options for action. He called the game MUD (for Multi-User Dungeons), and put it onto the Internet.</small>
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 |author=[[Richard Bartle]]
 |title=Designing Virtual Worlds
 |publisher=[[New Riders]]
 |year=2003
 |isbn=0131018167
 |pages=741
 |quote=<small>The "D" in MUD stands for "Dungeon" [...] because the version of ZORK Roy played was a Fortran port called DUNGEN.</small>
}}</ref> Trubshaw converted MUD to [[BCPL]] (the predecessor of [[C (Programming Language)|C]]), before handing over development to [[Richard Bartle]], a fellow student at Essex University, in 1980. <ref name="bartle-history-email">{{cite web
| url=http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/mudhist.htm
| title=Early MUD History  
| year=1990
| quote=<small>The program was also becoming unmanageable, as it was written in assembler. Hence, he rewrote everything in BCPL, starting late 1979 and working up to about Easter 1980. The finished product was the heart of the system which many people came to believe was the "original" MUD. In fact, it was version 3.</small>
}}</ref>

''MUD'', better known as ''Essex MUD'' and ''MUD1'' in later years, ran on the Essex University network until late 1987.<ref>{{cite web
 | url=http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/incarns.htm
 | title=Incarnations of MUD
 | author=[[Richard Bartle]]
 | quote=<small>This is the "classic" MUD, played by many people both internal and external to the University. Although eventually available only during night-time due to the effects of its popularity on the system, its impact on on-line gaming has been immense. I eventually closed it down on 30/9/87 upon leaving Essex University to work for MUSE full time.</small>
}}</ref> The game revolved around gaining points till one achieved the wizard rank, giving the player immortality and certain powers over mortals. The game became more widely accessible when a guest account was set up that allowed users on JANET (a British academic computer network) to connect between the hours of 2 am and 8 am and at weekends.<ref>{{cite web
 | url=http://groups.google.com/group/alt.mud/msg/a0c1c5d5c4a66eba
 | title=A brief history of MUDs
 | author=Bill Wistner
 | year=1990
 | quote=<small>The point of the game was to gain points until you achieved the rank of wizard, at which point you became immortal and gained certain powers over mortals. Points were 
scored by killing things or dropping treasure into a swamp. The game gained some popularity in Britain when a guest account was set up that allowed users on JANET (the British academic network) to play during the small hours of the morning each day.</small>
}}</ref> ''MUD1'' was reportedly closed down when Richard Bartle licensed ''[[MUD1]]'' to [[CompuServe]], and was getting pressure from them to close ''Essex MUD''. This left ''[[MIST (MUD)|MIST]]'', a derivative of ''MUD1'' with similar gameplay, as the only remaining MUD running on the Essex University network, becoming one of the first of its kind to attain broad popularity. ''MIST'' ran until the machine that hosted it, a PDP-10, was superseded in early 1991.<ref name="escape-from-the-dungeon">{{cite web
 |author=Michael Lawrie
 |title=Escape from the Dungeon 
 |year=2003
 |url=http://lorry.org/arch-wizard/history.html
 |quote=<small>October of 1987 was chaos. The MUD account was deleted, but the guest account on Essex University remained open. I guess it wasn't causing any trouble so they simply left it. ROCK, UNI and MUD all ran from the MUD account so they had gone but... MIST ran from a student account and it was still playable.</small>
}}</ref>

The popularity of MUDs of the Essex University tradition escalated in the USA during the 1980s when affordable personal computers with 300 to 2400 bit/s [[modems]] enabled role-players to log into multi-line Bulletin Board Systems and online service providers such as [[CompuServe]]. During this time it was sometimes said that MUD stands for "Multi Undergraduate Destroyer" due to their popularity among college students and the amount of time devoted to them.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.mud.co.uk/dvw/mudsasasociety.html
| title=A Study of MUDs as a Society
| year=1998
| quote=<small>Some would insist however that 'MUD' does in fact stand for Multi Undergraduate Destroyer, in recognition of the number of students who may have failed their classes due to too much time spent MUDding!</small>
}}</ref>

During the Christmas of 1985, Neil Newell, an avid ''MUD1'' player, started programming his own MUD called ''SHADES'' because ''MUD1'' was closed down during the holidays. Starting out as a hobby, ''SHADES'' became accessible in the UK as a commercial MUD via British Telecom's Prestel and Micronet networks.<ref>{{cite journal
 | url=http://games.world.co.uk/shades/inshades/history/Mags.htm
 | title=Micronet's Multi-user Game
 | author=Kate & Frobozz
 | year=1986
 | journal=Commodore Computing International
 | quote=<small>Written by Neil Newell, originally as a hobby because he enjoyed playing- the original MUD so much on Essex University, SHADES has recently. been launched on Micronet, the computer network, which has a large Commodore user-base.</small>
}}</ref> A scandal on ''SHADES'' led to the closure of Micronet, as described in [[Indra Sinha]]'s net-memoir, ''[[The Cybergypsies]]'',<ref>{{cite book
 |author=[[Indra Sinha]]
 |title=The Cybergypsies: a True Tale of Lust, War, and Betrayal on the Electronic Frontier.
 |year=1999
 |publisher=Viking Press
 |isbn=0-67088-630-0
}}</ref> and in an interview with Sinha on The WELL.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/52/Indra-Sinha-Cybergypsies-Lust-Wa-page05.html#post101
 |author=[[Indra Sinha]]
 |title=inkwell.vue.52 : Indra Sinha: Cybergypsies: Lust, War & Betrayal on the Electronic Frontier
 |year=1999
}}</ref>

In 1985 Pip Cordrey gathered some people on a BBS he ran to create a ''MUD1'' clone that would run on a home computer. The tolkienesque MUD went live in 1986 and was named ''[[MirrorWorld]]''.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=ftp://ftp.lambda.moo.mud.org/pub/MOO/papers/mudreport.txt
 |author=[[Richard Bartle]]
 |title=Interactive Multi-User Computer Games
 |year=1990
 |quote=<small>Pip Cordrey used to run a BBS called 'Labbs', which had a section devoted to MUD1 in its early days.  Six people from St. Paul's School worked on that section, and Cordrey organised them into a team to develop a MUA that would run on a home computer. The system was named MirrorWorld because it had rolling resets (as in the film "Westworld").  It went live in 1986.</small>
}}</ref>

1985 also saw the creation of ''[[Gods]]'' by Ben Laurie, a ''MUD1'' clone that included [[online creation]] in its endgame. ''Gods'' became a commercial MUD in 1988.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=ftp://ftp.lambda.moo.mud.org/pub/MOO/papers/mudreport.txt
 |author=[[Richard Bartle]]
 |title=Interactive Multi-User Computer Games
 |year=1990
 |quote=<small>Although the present system went live in October 1988, Gods began in 1985 as a non-commercial MUA; its author was inspired by MUD1 to write his own game, and was among the first people to do so. Gods was Shades' only rival to be the Prestel Micronet MUA.</small>
}}</ref>

In 1985 CompuNet started a project named ''Multi-User Galaxy Game'' as a Science Fiction alternative to ''MUD1'' which ran on their system at the time. When one of the two programmers left CompuNet, the remaining programmer, Alan Lenton, decided to rewrite the game from scratch and named it [[Federation II]] (there never was a Federation I). The MUD was officially launched in 1989.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=ftp://ftp.lambda.moo.mud.org/pub/MOO/papers/mudreport.txt
 |author=[[Richard Bartle]]
 |title=Interactive Multi-User Computer Games
 |year=1990
 |quote=<small>The Multi-User Galaxy Game project was begun in 1985 by CompuNet as a SF alternative to MUD1, which then ran on the system.  When the other programmer left CompuNet, Lenton rewrote the game from scratch as Federation II. It was officially launched on CompuNet in 1989; reported also to run on MicroLink, and on any other commercial system willing to take it.</small>
}}</ref>

Avalon: The Legend Lives was published by Yehuda Simmons in 1989. It was the first persistent game world of its kind without the traditional hourly resets and points based puzzle solving progression systems. Avalon introduced equilibrium and balance (cooldowns), skill-based player vs player combat and concepts such as player-run governments and player housing,and as of November 2014 it has been consistently online for over twenty five years, rendering it the longest running online RPG in gaming history.

===Commercialization===

In 1978, Alan E. Klietz wrote a game called ''[[Milieu]]'' using Multi-[[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] on a CDC Cyber 6600 series mainframe which was operated by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/6ac0255fe640074e
 |title=A brief (and very incomplete) history of MUDs
 |author=Bill Wisner
 |year=1990
 |quote=<small>Milieu was originally written for a CDC Cyber owned by the Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium. High school students from around the state were given access to the machine for educational purposes; they often ended up writing chat programs and games instead. I am uncertain
of the precise time frame, but I believe Milieu probably predates MUD.</small>
}}</ref> Klietz ported ''Milieu'' to an [[IBM XT]] in 1983, naming the new port ''[[Scepter of Goth]]''. ''Scepter'' supported 10 to 16 simultaneous users, typically connecting in by modem. It was one of the first commercial MUDs; franchises were sold to a number of locations. ''Scepter'' was first owned and run by GamBit (of [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]), founded by Bob Alberti. GamBit's assets were later sold to InterPlay (of [[Fairfax, Virginia]]). InterPlay eventually went bankrupt.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.mud/msg/e423bcf6cf93d73b
 |title=Scepter - the first MUD?
 |author=Alan Klietz
 |year=1992
 |quote=<small>As micros became cost effective, the MECC mainframe became obsolete and was shut down in 1983.  Scepter then went commercial in a collaboration between several ex-MECC (and by then also post-highschool) game hackers.  It was rewritten in C and ran on a PC XT running QNX.  It supported 16 dialup users, and dialup installations were set up in 5 states and Canada.  This exposed Scepter to a lot of budding MUD developers at a time when the Internet was just getting started.</small>
}}</ref>

In 1984, Mark Peterson wrote ''[[The Realm of Angmar]]'', beginning as a [[clone (computer and video games)|clone]] of ''[[Scepter of Goth]]''. In 1994, Peterson rewrote ''The Realm of Angmar'', adapting it to MS-DOS (the basis for many dial-in BBS systems), and renamed it ''[[Swords of Chaos]]''. For a few years this was a very popular form of MUD, hosted on a number of BBS systems, until widespread Internet access eliminated most BBSes.

In 1984, ''[[Mark Jacobs]]'' created and deployed a commercial gaming site, ''[[Gamers World]]''. The site featured two games coded and designed by Jacobs, a MUD called ''[[Aradath]]'' (which was later renamed, upgraded and ported to ''[[GEnie]]'' as ''[[Dragon's Gate]]'') and a 4X science-fiction game called ''Galaxy'', which was also ported to ''[[GEnie]]''.  At its peak, the site had about 100 monthly subscribers to both ''Aradath'' and ''Galaxy''.  GEnie was shut down in the late 1980s, although ''[[Dragon's Gate]]'' was later brought to ''America Online'' before it was finally released on its own.  Dragon's Gate was closed on February 10th, 2007.<ref name="Dragon's Gate Closure">{{cite web
 |url=http://p102.ezboard.com/The-Future-of-Dragons-Gate/fdragonsgatefrm91.showMessage?topicID=89.topic
 |title=The Future of Dragon's Gate
 |author=Darrin Hyrup
 |quote=<small>So after more than 15 years of great memories, with a heavy heart, I am going to officially declare Dragon's Gate closed... at least for now.</small>
}}</ref>

In 1985, [[Island of Kesmai]] was launched on [[CompuServe]], created by John Taylor and Kelton Flinn.  Island used [[Roguelike]] ASCII graphics.  Later, its 2-D graphical descendant [[Legends of Kesmai]] was launched on AOL in 1996. The games were retired commercially in 2000.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/massive-multiplayer-online-roleplaying-games-53791.html
 |title=Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
 |author=Adrian Kennelly
 |year=2006
 |quote=<small>The first mainstream product was sold to the public in 1984. The game, Islands of Kesmai, was extremely expensive, and the graphics were anything but impressive.</small>
}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/mudtimeline.shtml
 |title=Online World Timeline
 |author=Raph Koster
 |year=2000
 |quote=<small>"My memory says that Island of Kesmai went live on CompuServe on December 15, 1985, after a very long internal test. The price was actually $6 an hour for 300 baud, $12 for 1200 baud. Serious players paid the bucks." - Kelton Flinn</small>
 <small>In (2000) May, Electronics Arts announces the shutdown of most of the Kesmai games, including Legends of Kesmai and Air Warrior Classic.</small> 
}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/massive-multiplayer-online-roleplaying-games-53791.html
 |title=An Economic History of the Game Industry
 |author=Mark Gallear
 |year=1998
 |quote=<small>The company continued to develop massively multiplayer games such as Air Warrior 2 (1997) and Legends of Kesmai (1996), distributing their games through AOL and eventually their own gaming service, GameStorm.</small> 
}}</ref>

In the mid 90s AOL US ran several highly successful games, including Dragons Gate and [[Darkness Falls]] (by [[Mythic Entertainment]], which later launched [[Dark Age of Camelot]]), [[Federation]] (a space trading game) and [[Gemstone III]] ([[Simutronics]], which later launched [[Hero's Journey]]).

==Spread==

The first popular MUD [[codebase]] was [[AberMUD]], written in 1987 by [[Alan Cox]], named after the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Alan Cox had played the original [[University of Essex]] MUD, and the gameplay was heavily influenced by it.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mr_5b#sect_5_4
 |title=5. Reviews -- Restf of the World
 |author=Eddy Carroll
 |quote=Cox was a player of MUD1 who wrote AberMUD while a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
}}</ref> AberMUD was initially written in B for a Honeywell L66 mainframe under GCOS3/TSS and later ported to [[C (programming language)|C]] in late 1988, which enabled it to rapidly spread to many [[Unix]] platforms when it was released in 1989. AberMUD's popularity resulted in several inspired works, the most notable of these were [[TinyMUD]], [[LPMUD]], and [[DikuMUD]].<ref name="AberMUD">{{cite book
 |author=[[Richard Bartle]]
 |title=Designing Virtual Worlds
 |publisher=[[New Riders]]
 |year=2003
 |isbn=0131018167
 |pages=741
 |quote=<small>AberMUD spread across university computer science departments like a virus. Identical copies (or incarnations) appeared on thousands of Unix machines. It went through four versions in rapid succession, spawning several imitators. The three most important of these were TinyMUD, LPMUD, and DikuMUD.</small>
}}</ref>

===TinyMUD===

''[http://www.skrenta.com/monster/ Monster]'' was a multi-user adventure game created by [[Richard Skrenta]] for the VAX and written in VMS Pascal. It was publicly released in November 1988.<ref name='monster-release'>{{cite web
 |url=http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sources.games/msg/c95f01a4febd9fb1
 |title=monster - multiuser adventure game for VMS
 |author=[[Richard Skrenta]]
 |year=1988
 |publisher=[[Usenet]]
 |quote=<small>Monster was written in VMS Pascal under VMS 4.6.</small>
}}</ref> ''Monster'' was disk-based and modifications to the game were immediate. ''Monster'' pioneered the approach of allowing players to [[online creation|build]] the game world, setting new puzzles or creating dungeons for other players to explore.<ref name='monster-introduction'>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.skrenta.com/monster/final.html
 |title=An Introduction to Monster
 |author=[[Richard Skrenta]]
 |year=1988
 |quote=<small>Monster allows players to do something that very few, if any, other games allow:  the players themselves create the fantasy world as part of the game.  Players can create objects, make locations, and set up puzzles for other players to solve.</small>
}}</ref> Monster, having about 60.000 lines of code, had a lot of features which appeared to be designed to allow [[Colossal Cave Adventure]] to work in it. Though there never were many network-accessible Monster servers, it inspired James Aspnes to create a stripped down version of ''Monster'' which he called [[TinyMUD]].<ref name='mud-info'>{{cite web
 |url=http://groups.google.com/group/alt.mud/msg/1747c0abfca64367
 |title=Monster
 |author=James Aspnes
 |year=1990
 |quote=<small>TinyMUD 1.0 was initially designed as a portable, stripped-down version of Monster (this was back in the days when TinyMUD was designed to be up and running in a week of coding and last for a month before everybody got bored of it.)</small>
}}</ref>

TinyMUD, written in C and released in late 1989, spawned a number of descendants, including [[TinyMUCK]] and [[TinyMUSH]]. TinyMUCK versions 2 contained a full programming language named [[MUF (programming language)|MUF]] (Multi-User [[Forth (programming language)|Forth]]), while [[MUSH]] greatly expanded the command interface. Some use the term ''MU*'' to refer to TinyMUD, [[MUCK]], MUSH, [[MUSE]], [[TinyMUX|MUX]], and their kin. UberMUD, UnterMUD, and [[MOO]] were inspired by TinyMUD but are not direct descendants.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.linnaean.org/~lpb/muddex/mudline.html
 |title=The MUDline
 |author=Lauren P. Burka
 |year=1995
 |quote=<small>August 19, 1989. Jim Aspnes announces the availability of TinyMUD to a few friends. Its port, 4201, is Aspnes' office number. TinyMUD is written in C for Unix, and was originally conceived as a front-end for IRC.</small>
}}</ref>

===LPMud===
In 1989 [[LPMud]] was developed by [[Lars Pensjö]] (hence the '''LP''' in LPMud). Pensjö had been an avid player of [[TinyMUD]] and [[AberMUD]] and wanted to create a world with the flexibility of TinyMUD and the power of AberMUD. In order to accomplish this he wrote what is nowadays known as a [[virtual machine]] which he called the LPMud driver as well as the C-like [[LPC (programming language)|LPC programming language]] used to create the game world.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.rpgmud.com/lpmud_timeline.htm
 |title=LPMud timeline
 |author=George Reese
 |year=1995
 |quote=<small>Having fun playing Tinymud and Abermud, Lars Pensjö decides to write a server to combine the extensibility of Tinymud with the adventures of Abermud.</small>
}}</ref> Pensjö's interest in LPMud eventually waned and development was carried on by others. During the early 1990s, LPMud was one of the most popular MUD codebases.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.livinginternet.com/d/di_major.htm
 |title=MUD History
 |author=William Stewart
 |year=2002
 |quote=<small>The original LPMUD was written by Lars Pensjl and others, and became one of the most popular MUD's by the early 1990's.</small>
}}</ref>

=== DikuMUD ===

In 1991, the release of [[DikuMUD]], which was inspired by AberMUD, led to a virtual explosion of [[hack-n-slash]] MUDs based upon its code. DikuMUD inspired several derivative [[codebase]]s too, including [[CircleMUD]], [[Merc (MUD)|Merc]], [[SillyMUD]], [[NiMUD]], [[ROM (MUD)|ROM]],  [[SMAUG]], and [[GodWars]].

===Next phase?===

Online graphics-based games (MMORPGs), such as EverQuest, Lineage II, and World of Warcraft, as well as graphics-based [[virtual world]]s like Second Life, are arguably analogous to MUDs, and are sometimes referred to as "graphical MUDs" (see next section) or "next-generation MUDs".

Similarities include the basic goals and objectives of the games and the society of the environments. One difference is that the majority of MMORPGs and social avatar worlds are commercial ventures.  [http://www.fudco.com/habitat/archives/000020.html The Business of Social Avatar Virtual Worlds]

== Variants ==
While there have been many variations in game-play and features in MUDs, some distinct sub-groups have formed that can be used to help categorize different the varieties.

===Graphical MUDs===
A '''graphical MUD''' is a MUD that uses [[computer graphic]]s to represent parts of the virtual world and its visitors. A prominent early graphical MUD was ''[[Habitat (video game)|Habitat]]'', written by [[Randy Farmer]] and [[Chip Morningstar]] for Lucasfilm in 1985. Graphical MUDs require players to download a special client and the game's artwork. They range from simply enhancing the [[user interface]] to simulating 3D worlds with visual spatial relationships and customized avatar appearances.

After the increase in computing power and Internet connectivity during the late nineties, graphical MUDs became better known as MMORPGs, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

===Talkers and spods===
{{main|Talker}}
A less-known MUD variant is the ''[[talker]]'', typically based on [[ew-too]] or [[Nuts (Talker)|NUTS]], with plenty of derived [[codebase]]s. The early talkers were essentially MUDs with most of the complex game machinery stripped away, leaving just the communication commands -- hence the name "talker". Talkers use simple protocols and create very little network traffic, making them ideal for setting up quietly at work.

People who use these tend to be called [[spod]]s, and have earned [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/spod.html a place] in the [[Jargon File]].

===Player versus player MUDs===

{{main|Player versus player}}
A [[player versus player]], or player killing, MUD is one which encourages [[player versus player]] combat. Some MUDs have registered player killing, meaning a player must register as a player killer and can only fight other registered player killers.

===Roleplay Intensive MUDs (RPIs)===
A [[Roleplay]] intensive MUD is a MUD that is heavily [[roleplay-enforced]]. The [http://rpimud.genesismuds.com/ RPIMUD Network] describes RPI MUDs as MUDs that "center themselves around suspension of disbelief and playing out specific character roles as if the role were real and you were your character. In general, the objective of the game is not to complete computer-generated quests or tally the most kills in order to gain levels and equipment, but to collaborate with fellow players to create complex and multi-layered storylines in a cohesive gaming environment. RPIMUDs are very different from other MUDs because of the emphasis on character interaction over hack-and-slash gaming."

==Common characteristics==
A player on a MUD usually has an opportunity to select a [[race]], such as [[Human]], [[Elf]], [[Half-Elf]], [[Dwarf]], [[Ogre]], [[Gnome]], [[Halfling]], [[Minotaur]], [[Drow]], or other [[List of species in fantasy fiction|race drown from fantasy]]. Often [[monster]]s are drawn from the same fantasy bestiary.<ref>[http://www.materiamagica.com/reference/bestiary/index.php Bestiary Materia Magica]</ref>

== Psychology and playing style==
Dr. [[Sherry Turkle]], Ph.D. of [[Sociology]] of Science at [[MIT]], developed a theory in her book "[[Life on the Screen]]" that the constant use (and in many cases, overuse) of MUDs allows users to develop different personalities in their environments. She uses examples, which date back to the text-based MUDs of the mid-1990s, showing college students who simultaneously live different lives through characters in separate MUDs, up to three at a time, all while doing schoolwork. The students claimed that it was a way to "shut off" their own lives for a while and become part of another reality. Turkle claims that this could present a psychological problem of identity for today's youths.

Observations of MUD-play show styles of play that can be roughly categorized. Achievers focus on the difficulties of the game, difficult quests, fearsome monsters, and hard to obtain equipment; others explore every nook and cranny of the game, and try out all the guilds and races; some devote most of their energy to interacting with other players; then there are the killers who focus on interacting negatively with other players, if permitted, killing their characters or otherwise thwarting their play. Few players play only one way, or play one one way all the time; most exhibit a diverse style.<ref>[http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/HTML/v1/bartle.html "Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs"] article by [[Richard Bartle]] in ''The Journal of Virtual Environments'', Volume 1, Number 1 (July 1997)</ref> According to [[Richard Bartle]], a longtime coder and observer of MUD-play,  responding to a question posed by Keith Stuart, an interviewer for ''The Guardian'', "People go there as part of a hero's journey - a means of self-discovery"<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/07/17/id_close_world_of_warcraft_mud_creator_richard_bartle_on_the_state_of_virtual_worlds.html
 |title=MUD, PLATO and the dawn of MMORPGs
 |author=Keith Stuart
 |year=2007
 |quote=<small>People go there as part of a hero's journey - a means of self-discovery</small>
}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Interactive fiction]], a kind of single player "MUD"
*[[:Category:MU* servers]]
*[[:Category:MU* games]]
*[[MUD client]]
*[[MUD trees]]
*[[Talker]] - historically based on MUDs
*[[Online Creation]]
*[[Online text-based role-playing game]]
*[[Cyberformance]]
*[[Roguelike]]
*[[List of Dungeons & Dragons based MUDs]]

== External links ==
{{externallinks|date=August 2008}}
*[http://snible.org/mud/ MUD Area building software and links] May be somewhat dated with some dead links.

===MUD history, analysis===
*[http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mr_5b Some history and reviews] from Richard Bartle's "Interactive Multi-User Computer Games" report
*[http://www.linnaean.org/~lpb/muddex/mudline.html The MUDline]: A timeline of MUD history up to 1995.
*[http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/HTML/v2/keegan.html A Classification of MUDs] by Martin Keegan, Grandmaster Data Services Ltd, Cambridge, UK
*[http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/mudtimeline.shtml Online World Timeline] - Raph Koster's timeline of significant events for the development of virtual worlds.
*[http://www.livinginternet.com/d/d.htm Living Internet] A comprehensive history of the internet, including MUDs.
*[http://www.guildcafe.com/bartle.php Bartle MUD Personality Analyzer] Long-running test to classify MUD/MMORPG personality, based on [[Richard Bartle|Bartle]]'s research.
*[http://www.aluluei.com/cult-form.htm Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities] - A thesis on cultural and social interaction on muds.
*[http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/ Journal of Virtual Environments]: Formerly the Journal of Mud Research.  A currently inactive peer-reviewed academic journal.

===MUD source code repositories===
*[http://www.andreasen.org/ Erwin S. Andreasen]: Home of the 16k MUD competition, and other resources.
*[http://ftpgame.org ftpgame.org]: Hierarchal archive of MUD source code
*[http://www.mudbytes.net MudBytes.net]: MUD code repository and discussion.

=== MUD resources ===
*[http://www.mudconnect.com/ Mud Connector]: Extensive mud portal with hundreds of mud listings
*[http://www.topmudsites.com/ Top Mud Sites]: MUD listings, reviews, discussion forum and rankings by category.
*[http://mudseek.com MUDseek]: Google custom search engine indexing MUD and MUD-related web sites.
*[http://mudfind.com/ MUDFind]: MUD Resources
*[http://www.mudstats.com/ MUD Stats]: MUD statistics.
*[http://rpimud.genesismuds.com/ RPIMUD Network]: Site devoted to Role-Play Intensive MUDs.
*[https://PocketMUD.com PocketMUD]: Site for hosting and support for CoffeeMUD MUDs

==References==
{{reflist}}


{{Wikipedia}}
[[Category:MU* games]]